V. C. The Roma in Germany  

DAVID, Henriette. “Nouvelles de l’etranger: Allemagne.” Etudes Tsiganes 19, nos. 1-2 (1973): p.75.
This article records an ethnic clash between Germans and Roma, underlining continuing anti-Roma sentiment in Germany.
GEIGES, Anita, and Bernhard WETTE. Zigeuner Heute: Verfolgung und Diskriminierung in der BRD: eine Anklageschrift. Bornheim-Merten: Lamuv-Verlag, 1979.
This is an account of the German Roma’s sufferings, rationalized as a result of the social and cultural differences between the marginalized Roma and the dominant German societies.
HANCOCK, Ian. “Gypsy History in Germany and Neighboring Lands: A Chronology Leading to the Holocaust and Beyond,” in David M. Crowe and John Kolsti, eds., The Gypsies of Eastern Europe. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1991.
This excellent chronological overview traces the history of mistreatment of the Roma from the time of their arrival in the German states in the early 15th century through 1989. Seen through the detailed chronology, the Holocaust seems as though it was almost a natural outcome of centuries of destructive and sometimes deadly, anti-Roma policy and practice. This fine essay is anchored by detailed footnotes.


Human Rights Watch. Foreigners Out: Xenophobia and Right-Wing Violence in Germany. New York: Human Rights Watch Report, October 1992.

This survey looks at the rise of neo-Nazi and other extremists groups in Germany after the collapse of communism and reunification. Among the victims of this upwelling of extremism are the Roma, many of them recent arrivals who fled to Germany in hopes of avoiding similar treatment in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
KOPF, Peter. Sinti und Roma. Munich: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1994.
This study about the German Roma and their current problems compares their pre- and post-war treatment.
MACARTNEY, Robert J. “East Berlin Said to Agree to Holocaust Payments.” Washington Post, 19 October 1988, pp. 25-26.
This article is about the East German decision to recompense Jewish survivors of war crimes while refusing to pay anything to Romany survivors.
MARTINS-HEUSS, Kirsten. “Reflections on the Collective Identity of German Roma and Sinti (Gypsies) After National Socialism.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1989), pp. 193-211.
This study, which draws on the author’s earlier work “Zur mysthichen Figur des Zigeuners” in der deutschen Zigeunerforschung (Frankfurt am Main: Haag und Herchen Verlag, 1983), centers around interviews with survivors of the Romany Holocaust. Despite their suffering, these victims retain a strong sense of Romany identity.
MEAGHER, Edmund Anthony. “Gypsies in Germany Make a Stand.” The Christian Century, April 11, 1990, pp. 370-372.
The author explores the outburst in anti-Roma violence in Germany in 1989-1990. Most of it was aimed at recently arrived Romany immigrants who were fleeing similar mistreatment in Eastern Europe. The article highlights efforts by the German Evangelical church to convince government officials to grant the Roma special 5-year residency and work permits. Perhaps the most tragic of these upheavals took place on October 2, 1989, when Hamburg police tried to displace a number of recently arrived Roma who were camped out at the site of the former Neuengamme concentration camp. Some of the Roma who were attacked by police in full battle gear were survivors of the Holocaust.
MODE, H., and S. WOLFFLING. Zigeuner: Der Weg eines Volkes in Deutschland. Leipzig: Koehler and Amelang, 1968.
This book explains the connection between modern Romany problems and historic German-Roma relationships.
NOAKES, Jeremy. “Social Outcasts in Nazi Germany.” History Today 18 (1985); and New York Times, 17 September 1986.
This author makes the point that Roma have historically been the target of German abuse and argues that the lesson of such injustice and violence should never be forgotten.
POND, Elizabeth. “Romanies: Hitler’s Other Victims.” Christian Science Monitor, 7 March 1980, p. 17.
This article examines the West German government that called Romany demands for war crimes reparations unreasonable and slanderous.
Survey of the Policy and Law Regarding Aliens in the Federal Republic of Germany. Bonn: Federal Ministry of the Interior, 1992. Mentioned in I. Fonseca’s Bury Me Standing.
This study of legislation concerning German immigration tells of the difficulties faced by Roma in obtaining the status of legal immigrant.
VOSSEN, Rudiger. Zigeuner: Roma, Sinti, Gitanos, Gypsies, zwischen Verfolgung und Romatisierung. Frankfurt: Ullstein Fachbuch, 1983.
This explains the different tribal labels used to distinguish the Roma. In Nazi Germany, for example, the Lalleri and Sinti (see supra, Kueppers) were Aryan, at least to SS head Himmler, while other Roma were condemned as racially stained.
WEISSENBRUCH, Johann Benjamin. Ausfuehrliche Relation von der famosen Zigeuner - Diebs - Mord - und Rauberbande. Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1772.
This late 18th-century work describes the wholesale murders of the Roma, specifically five pogroms which occurred across German lands.


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